Massacre of the Jewish community, trigger of the Great Revolt

Caesarea Maritima, founded by Herod and later made the seat of the Roman governor, was a mixed city where Jews and Syrians disputed citizenship rights and precedence. Nero had ruled in favor of the latter, leaving the Jewish community without civic status in a city they had helped to populate.

A neighborhood dispute over a plot of land adjacent to the synagogue ignited the powder keg: a bird sacrifice was performed before the gate, in mockery of the purity laws, and the garrison did not intervene. The massacre of the community followed; the survivors made their way to Narbata.

The news reached Jerusalem on the very day that procurator Florus had the Temple treasury seized. It is from these two combined events that the Great Revolt began.